Memories of Italy

Words by Luca Di Lotti

The entire series is dedicated to the memory of my beloved father: Lorenzo Di Lotti, architect.

Years ago I stumbled across the superlative work of Frank Machalowski which had a strong resemblance to some drawings my father made during the 1970’s. My father’s drawings were peculiar because he often used the two-point perspective technique plus some auxiliary points that were intended only for some parts of the drawing. His idea was to intentionally create the feeling that “something isn’t right” but in a very subtle way, in order to draw attention toward certain elements (buildings) in the represented urban or architectural scene.

Most of the images are taken in Turin, Piedmont, in the northern region of Italy. A significant part of the series was taken inside the Monumental Cemetery of Turin, a place rich in history and art while some others are taken in Rome. The multiple exposure technique is quite simple but requires a lot of patience, accuracy and a bit of planning, since it is all created on film (sometimes 120 film, sometimes 35mm film, sometimes Polaroid “type 100” film).

I have always been fascinated by the images that allow us to perceive an environment in a dynamic way — a way much more similar to how we memorize the real world — different from that which can be obtained by looking at an image made by a single exposure. I’m still working on other projects that experiment with the same result.